LIKE TUNISIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 August 1943, Page 4

LIKE TUNISIA

FINAL PHASE IN SICILY

MANY GERMANS ESCAPING

TO MAINLAND.

REMAINING FORCES HARD PRESSED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, August 12. The situation in Sicily is daily more like that in Tunisia before the final break through to Tunis and Bizerta, says Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters. A special battle report received today stated that the German troops were tiring, but that their lines were unbroken, despite constant yielding before overwhelming Allied pressure.

All reports from Sicily agree that the Germans are showing signs of fatigue and of the supply shortages they are enduring. For over a month they have been battling with little or no chance of relief. The Allies, on the contrary, with their unquestionable superiority in numbers, have been able to replace the troops who were tired out in the initial battles. The Germans are thus constantly meeting fresh forces. The correspondent adds that, according to an authoritative statement, the German evacuation from Sicily is in full swing. Thousands are escaping daily. Eighty vessels are shuttling to and from the Italian mainland, with men and equipment, under a col(?ssal antiaircraft barrage from heavy and light guns. The German movement is not a mass evacuation, but has been steadily built up in the past few days. The Germans are using beaches on the north coast of Sicily for embarkation. Heavy anti-aircraft fire makes accurate air attack difficult.

Reuter’s correspondent with the Eighth Army says the Allies estimate that about 1,000 Germans are escaping daily. They are using scattered points as embarkation centres. Many- of the surface craft being used for the evacuation are going to scattered points in the toe of Italy, to avoid making a congested target for attack from the air. ATTACK ON RANDAZZO. A correspondent for the Combined British Press, with the American Seventh Army, says that throughout today he saw'Clouds of dust raised by British supply columns as the Eighth Army pushed nearer Randazzo. Allied bombers unloaded .almost continuously today against Randazzo. The correspondent adds that there is further evidence that the Germans are evacuating troops from favoured Nazi regiments. The ’Germans obviously are anxious to take as much equipment as possible with them. The Allied captured an order statirig that: "The passport to Italy is a gun.” The Germans are also taking ammunition. The German fighting strength is now comparatively small, with some battalions down to company strength, but the terrain is still helping the enemy enormously. AMERICAN LANDING. Describing the second American landing on the north coast, an Associated Press correspondent with the Seventh Army says United States units landed behind the German lines from assault boats on Tuesday night and' made contact with the main body of Americans in the vicinity of Cape Orlando after all-day fighting. They swept ashore with supporting tanks, took prisoner a number of Germans and beat off three heavy counter-at-tacks before our own troops, attacking from the west, helped to close the seven-mile gap in which the Germans were pocketed. The guns of the United States fleet backed the landing force and helped beat off counter-at-tacks. The Allies’ air forces also bombed the German positions. The sound of the battle was audible to the main body of troops fighting across the coastal ridges in order to entrap as many Germans as posible. The Germans launched their heaviest counterattack before dusk, but the Americans charged desperately and managed to link up with their own main body, after capturing a small village four miles inland from the landing point. The Germans fiercely attacked the landing force from both sides, but eventually gave up and moved into the hills. The Berlin radio claimed that the defenders surprised the Americans and annihilated one-third of the landing force before it reached the beach.

GERMAN TACTICS SUICIDE TROOPS LEFT BEHIND. TO DELAY ALLIED ADVANCE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) RUGBY, August 12. The bombing of German communications in Sicily is increasingly heavy, and there is some evidence that as a result the Germans are finding it difficult to feed their forward troops, says a military commentator in London. The Germans are now using heavy mach-ine-gun mortar posts in covering demolitions while they fall back.

These tactics, although effective in delaying the advance of the Allied forces, are also very costly, as the Germans left in the posts are suicide troops, who are either killed or captured.

According to the latest information, the battle line runs from Giarre across the southern ‘slopes of Mt. Etna to Bronte, on almost to Randazzo and thence northwards to the coast. Randazzo is now within range of field artillery at a distance of 10,000 yards.